Mother: Autistic son had to be hospitalized after alleged abuse by Redwood City teacher

Though a 5-year-old autistic boy from Redwood City had been vomiting several times a day for nearly a week last month -- leaving him dehydrated and hospitalized -- doctors couldn't find a physical explanation for his illness.

His mother, however, believes she knows what was wrong: Her child had been slapped as well as denied food and water as punishment by his teacher at a Redwood City School District program for special-needs children, she says. The instructor, 43-year-old Alexia Bogdis, faces nine misdemeanor counts on accusations she abused two 5-year-old autistic students in the program at Roosevelt Elementary School in December and January.

The mother, who spoke on condition of anonymity so that her child could not be identified, also raised questions about what Bogdis' co-workers knew and when. One aide sent the mother a text message warning of abuse seven days before anyone came forward to district officials on Feb. 1. Under state law, educators must immediately report suspected mistreatment to police or child protective services.

"Just to talk about that makes my stomach feel sick. Who can I trust now?" asked the 32-year-old mother in her first public comments on the case. Her attorney, Todd Emanuel, who was present at the interview, said she has not filed a lawsuit but is keeping all options open.

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Bogdis has pleaded not guilty to the charges and says she is innocent. Her attorney, Steven Clark, said he hadn't seen any evidence of the hospital stay.

"I'm not in a position to doubt it," Clark said. "We significantly dispute that Ms. Bogdis had anything to do with it."

The mother said she learned in a Feb. 3 phone call from Redwood City police that her son had likely been abused by Bogdis. She said she has since seen her child become violent and aggressive. She has also endured the worry of her son being hospitalized from Feb. 7-10 for mysterious symptoms after five days of vomiting spells.

The mother said the struggle is compounded by the lack of information coming from the school district. She is trying to seek proper treatment for her boy, but can't do that without details about what happened at school. Her only planned meeting with district officials ended before it began Thursday because she brought her attorney.

Superintendent Jan Christensen said the district has offered to meet with the parents of each child from Bogdis' class, but not everyone responded.

"We shared information from our internal review with those who came in to meet with us," she wrote.

Christensen also said if a child needed to be hospitalized as a result of a teacher's actions, "it would be a violation of all we believe in as a school district."

The boy's autism leaves him unable to converse. While he memorizes entire books and recites passages, he is not able to talk about them. His mother said the primary reason his parents know about the allegations that food was withheld is because one of Bogdis' aides sent her a text message.

The Jan. 26 message, shown to this newspaper and translated from Spanish by the mother, says: "The witch hasn't let (the boy) eat because he was licking on his fingers. That happened yesterday and today. I don't know how hungry he's getting."

Though she had noticed packages of chips, crackers and a bottle of water coming home untouched, the mother never imagined that her son wasn't being allowed to eat as punishment. After receiving the text message from the aide, she followed up with Bogdis by text message and Bogdis assured her nothing was wrong.

District officials say the abuse was first reported to them Feb. 1 when an aide divulged the accusations to Deputy Superintendent John Baker. That delay in revealing the allegations has since left six staffers facing unspecified discipline.

The aide who sent the mother the text message, Annel Barriga, declined to comment when reached by phone Monday and referred questions to the Redwood City Teachers Association. Union President Bill Crow and President-elect Bret Baird didn't respond to emails requesting comment.